Strength
by SillyLesbianPanda
Summary: It's been a long time since Atemu and Thief Bakura got their new bodies, now the gang's in their early thirties. Atemu and Mai are getting married, bringing everyone together for the wedding. Will Ryou be able to use this to his advantage? Ryou x Bakura


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, any of its characters or ideas. But I'll fuck with them anyway.

**Author's Note: **Okay, staring a new story. This one's Ryou x Thief Bakura, or Tozokuo as Wikipedia told me, I like Tozokuo better than Bakura so yeah. He's Tozokuo. Deal with it. Also Ryou will not be weak or effeminate. He may be a little 'sweeter' than Tozokuo, but he's no one's bitch. Enjoy the intro, I'll have the next chapter up a little over a week from now, as long as I get reviews.

_Intro_

_I sit at my desk, legs resting on the hardwood surface, crossed. I stare at the ceiling, playing with a very nice pen one of my patients bought me as a thank you. The shiny dark marble-ish outside shines, it has gilded accents. A very nice gift, especially from someone who was already paying me._

_Bakura Ryou, M.D._

_Plastic Surgeon to be precise. Who'd of thought?_

_I flash back to when I applied for medical school, Yugi and Otogi pushing me to fill out the paper work. I remember how much my hands were trembling, Otogi wrote half of my entrance paper, while I dictated of course. Back then the thought of cheating wouldn't have crossed my mind. It doesn't often now, but I'm no stranger to it. Some things you just can't get around._

_I look to the letter sitting on my desk. An actual letter, hand written in neat cursive, decorative yet readable. So Atemu. _

_He was marrying Mai. I was invited._

_It made me smile to think he thought to invite me, even though we hadn't spoke face to face in years._

_I haven't seen any of them, except Yugi and Anzu awhile back. They had eloped, to Okinawa, where I'm living. I was living here then too. I only saw them for maybe an hour, Anzu wanted to get dressed somewhere other than the hotel room, when they called I couldn't refuse them._

_Simple romantic. Wonderful. Clearly not Anzu's idea, but I love her any way. _

_I check the attending box, along with the surf and turf option. I'm defiantly not vegetarian, and why on earth would some one go out of their way for chicken breast? Surf and turf is the only sane answer. A 10 oz prime rib and salmon. Sounds good right about now. Or maybe a t-bone and some shrimp._

_I call down to the secretary, Kimmiko, and ask she get me and herself some dinner, on me. It's only her and I in the office, Golden week in soon and I gave the rest of the staff paid leave, but I needed to do paperwork. It's dreadful, but necessary if I don't want lawyers chewing up my ass._

_I busy myself with filling out forms as I wait for my dinner. It's nice owning your own practice, but the work is starting to piss me off. Only 5 more years, then I can semi retire, just own the practice, let another surgeon take other, maybe Hideki…_

"_Here's your dinner, Ryou-sensei." Kimmiko smiles passing me the box of food, her crows feet wrinkling happily. Even as a plastic surgeon, I wouldn't ever dream of getting rid of those cheerful motherly lines on her face._

"_Arigato Kimmiko. That'll be all, get back to your grandchildren before it's terribly late."_

_She chuckles. "As if you could keep me here sweetie. But I'll do some work while I finish the eel rolls you so graciously paid for." She bows, leaving the room._

_I open the box of food, the American style cuisine almost smiles back at me. Of course, steak always reminds me of him._

_I sigh, remembering the he and Atemu came back._

_-------_

_I woke up, sore everywhere._

"_Oh God! He's awake!"_

_Anzu ran over from across the room, and hugged me tenderly. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I noticed Yugi laying in a bed next to mine, weakly smiling at me. Otogi, Jonouchi, and Honda were sitting on the floor across the small room from us, Mai on a couch near them. I assumed the empty seat had been Anzu's. But what attracted my attention the most were the two very naked men standing in the middle of the room, both looking flabbergasted. _

_They looked at me, one looked like he could be Yugi's older brother. Darker skin and a few inches taller, his warm face grinned at me, like he had known me a long time._

_The other may have been just shy of 6 feet tall. His toned muscled moved under dark, scar littered skin. Shame and guilt rolled off his body, it clearly pained him to look at me. It made me wish he'd look away, if only to stop his pain._

"_How are you feeling, Ryou-kun?" Anzu said, crying tears of joy._

"_Sore, but otherwise well. Umm…" I chuckled blushing to show my confusion._

"_Oh right! You would be confused, poor thing. Atemu, want to explain?"_

"_Let Yugi, I want to get dressed." He chuckled, winking at me. I smiled back, already liking him, Atemu. I liked his name too._

"_Tozokuo, Atemu, here." Otogi threw Atemu a violet print shirt and some kaki's, Honda threw the other man a black wife beater with a dark blue plaid flannel over shirt and some dark flare jeans._

"_Good thing Honda's so freakishly big, you'd never get into the clothes I brought Tozokuo! You're a fucking beast." Jonouchi laughed. Tozokuo tried to smile at Jono, but his facial muscles wouldn't let him. _

_The two new comers slipped into the bathroom off the room we were in, after closing the door loud crashing noises and what was probably cursing in some strange language followed. _

_Mai giggled. "They'll never truly get along, will they?"_

"_At least they're not trying to kill each other anymore." Yugi sighed, smiling at the door._

_After that came the story of a life time, about two ancient spirits trapped in gaudy jewelry, some of which I had been wearing for the last few years. Apparently that was the cause of my blackouts, the bigger, white-haired man, Tozokuo, had been taking over my body collecting artifacts to bring himself back to life._

_But long story short, they were here, they were confusing, but that was okay. My friends obviously cared deeply about them, so I probably would too._

_Atemu and Tozokuo came crashing out of the bathroom glaring at each other._

_Atemu looked from him to me, obviously trying to get the big man to say something._

_They yelled in Egyptian to each other but finally Tozokuo gave in._

"_C'mon, let's give them some privacy." Atemu and Anzu helped Yugi out of his bed._

"_Yeah, Malik will want us to call to find out how things went." Yugi said smiling up at them._

_Everyone filed out of the room, leaving me alone with him._

"_It's… strange. To look at you from the outside." Tozokuo finally broke the tense silence that had been choking the room._

"_I imagine it would be… I can't say I blame you for anything."_

_He sat down on the bed. His eyes were a metallic purple, hard with pain. So much pain. I felt an over whelming urge to ease his suffering._

"_You should. I almost got you killed, so many times. I put you in harms way, an innocent man, and for what? My crazed, ill-informed revenge? I never, I never had good common sense? Yes, that's what it's called. But the shit I did… I took part of you away from yourself. You shouldn't forgive me… But I want you to. So badly, but not until you think about it."_

_He touched my face, like a kitten testing water with the tip of its paw. I sat up, and held his hand to my face. A blush crept over his face. I smile back at him, and ran a hand through his hair, excited by the shudder he gave. _

_-------_

_My fingers tingled as I remember how strangely soft his hair was. What a beautiful man._

_I've forgiven him, so many times. I don't think he'd caused as nearly as much damage as Atemu had told him, I could only assume Atemu was the one to explain to Tozokuo what exactly he had done. Though Isis probably helped._

_I sighed again, wondering to myself if he'd be there, at the wedding._

_Most likely, despite their feud he and Atmeu definitely had a connection. The weeks I had gotten to know him seemed like a blur._

_We were clearly drawn to each other, sharing a body and mind for so long without even realizing it, I __**knew**__ him. While Atemu and Yugi's bond was brotherly, ours was going in a totally different direction._

_One day I kissed him. Just a peck, to see his reaction._

_He cried. Told me again and again that I was too good for him, to try to find some one else._

_I told him I didn't want anyone else. I couldn't be happy with anyone else. _

_Maybe it was my hormones, I was only 17. Not old enough to grasp love._

_But I'm older now. 32. And I still crave him._

_I remember that I cried when he left, the first time I'd cried since my mother and sister passed. He left to Egypt, to help Isis and her team uncover new tombs, robbing them had been his 'profession'. _

_Yes, this wedding is my chance to get him back. To get half of me back._

_I ran my fingers through my short hair, you didn't think I kept the same hair cut did you?_

_It's a simple cut, a little less than an inch long. There's a little product in it, giving it texture._

_I'm a lot bigger than I was when I was 17. I grew 8 inches in college, I'm 6' 2" now*. I wonder if I'm as tall as Tozokuo…_

_Picking up the letter, I grab my coat and lock my office. The wedding's in a week, I have a lot to get done before then, I have to figure out what I'll do._

_I'm coming, Tozokuo. _


End file.
